Teacher says write about anything, then threatens zeros to students who wrote about guns

An English teacher at Denton High School on the edge of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex allegedly told students to write a few sentences about whatever topic they wanted for an assignment on Monday. However, the teacher then refused to grade the work of two students because they mentioned guns.

When the students — both seniors — wrote about innocuous gun-related themes, the teacher, Dewey Christian, scolded them in front of the class. Classmates laughed, and the students were humiliated, reports KDFW, the local FOX affiliate.

Christian further informed them that their writing would yield big, fat zeros unless they wrote new paragraphs on other topics.

“Mr. Christian said, ‘I want y’all to write a paper about a fun experience y’all had — a nice experience,’” Alex Wright, one of the students, told the station. “He said you could make up something so I said, ‘Me and my mom went to Cabela’s to buy a gun.’ And as soon as he heard the word ‘gun,’ he told me to sit down.”

The other student, Marshall Williams, decided to write about a Fort Worth gun show he had recently attended.

“I feel like he stomped on our right to free speech,” Williams said of his English teacher. “He didn’t even consider what we had said.”

When he went home Monday night, Williams told his mother, Kimberly Williams, about the incident. She wasn’t happy.

“He didn’t put any parameters out for what it could be and couldn’t be. That was my problem,” Kimberly Williams told KDFW.

On Tuesday morning, Kimberly Williams and Marshall Williams met with Christian. She recorded the meeting for posterity on her cellphone. It’s not clear if Christian is aware of the recording.

In the video, which KDFW shows, Kimberly Williams asks Christian about the criteria for the assignment. His response is unclear because both the elder Williams and Christian are talking simultaneously.

“So because it had guns in it you refused to grade it?” Kimberly Williams can then be heard asking.

“Not just guns, but you see we’ve had a certain amount of violence and things in schools. …” Christian replies.

“I’m not asking you about that. I’m asking you about the subject matter of his paper and why you took issue with it,” Williams snaps back.